IT Planning at Modmeters Essay

doorThis paper discusses the miscellaneous aspects of IT think at Modmeters Company which has devil strategies of expanding globally and providing direct-to-customer sales. The routine of IT is big in the elaboration initiatives of Modmeters. The executives of various discussion sections held a meeting to identify the work out requirements for the expansion. The plan is to establish untried plants in Asia and Eastern Europe where the infrastructure facilities be non sufficient required for the trading operations at Modemeters. Brian Smith, CIO of Modmeters is worried about these both initiatives as the IT funding was very poor. The participation has never invested in reengineering the living systems, instead, they endlessly introduced novel systems on top of the opposite. buns Johnson, CEO wanted to change the relieve oneself of the company as MM for this updated strategy.The up-to-date cypher levels at the company ar not going support the expansion initiativ es. Surprisingly, only 2% of the revenue was allocated to IT. fit in to Brian, 80% of the IT bud locomote was fixed for political campaign the brisk systems and fixing errors. The remaining 20% was allotted based on ROI, where mass of the budget was used by manufacturing department, homophile resources and marketing departments having minor share. Brian believed that this kind of budgeting is not effective for their new business line strategies (McKeen & Smith, 2012). Brian explains the convey to implement pliable systems to support the updated strategies.He stresses on the budget requirements to buy new infrastructure and problems with the be systems. The systems are not integrated and use different terminologies in different divisions. IT necessarily investment for infrastructure, rudimentary processes and to manage the information. However, the outcomes of the budget meeting by and by having a long discussion were to rank the IT spues depending up on their contribu tion to the pick up objectives of the company and also how apiece of them is adding evaluate to the Modmeters.To develop the direct-to-customer sales, the marketing department fills more investment to get the resources. Hence, to implement the new strategicalinitiatives at Modemeters, the budget allocated to IT and marketing plays a key role.RecommendationsAn IT planning process aims to be genuine to meet the demands of the new projects. First of all, the IT computer architecture has to be changed such that the systems are flexible to use. All the divisions should use similar words to manage the information and communicate with other divisions. A data dictionary select to be developed to address the speech communication issues. IT should be involved in ending making at Modmeters. An enterprise architecture need to be developed to get the best out of IT. Though, I borrow that IT projects should be measured in impairment of ROI, the current situation at Modmeters is diff erent. The systems are never reengineered and the communication between the systems feel like a spaghetti, where failure of each system may lead to a complete failure. There is a need to invest on upward(a) the architecture considering long term advantages of the investment. The IT and business should wee-wee a common goals and objectives in evolution the existing business.The inescapably of the manufacturing, marketing, R&D and HR need to be still and allocate the budget accordingly. Identify the warmness competencies of IT and a cost-benefit analysis should be make for the projects. The business employees opinions should be interpreted in using technologies. The key business rung needs to be identified and make account managers. They should present their findings to the top counselling so that, the governance body terminate look for interoperability of the systems. In the IT vision, guiding principles should be developed which links the business strategies. Mean temporar y hookup, existing business requirements and operations should be address as a continuous process. A departmental approach should be taken while prioritizing the projects. This approach focuses on improving the business by expanding globally, enabling direct-to-customer sales, delightful Stans auditing needs, making use of existing projects and improving the infrastructure.Account managers should analyze how the proposed project would benefit their respective departments. The IT and business stack should work closely while growth strategies. A SWOT analysis should be made while developing the plan. IT should be given enough budget and aggroup work is all important(p) to implement new strategies. The nation need to be dexterous by allocating budget required to HR department.The resources should be used effectively for the global expansion. A centralized IT structure is essential for Modmeters to share the information between the divisions. Fred, VP of manufacturing should rea d the honor of IT. At Modmeters, business needs should be understood by IT to carry the best technology meanwhile, business people should provide necessary funding to IT. by from the ROI, Customer satisfaction, greater efficiency, product quality, specie savings and other intangible benefits need to be considered while assessing the business value of a project (Ferris, 2012). The marketing department funding needs to be increased. It is important to enable smooth transition while expanding and change should be managed carefully to be successful. Also, the policies and procedures in the IT plan should comply with the regulations. To conclude, IT and business collaboration is important in strategic IT planning. IT value should be understood by business and business needs should be understood by IT. At Modmeters, reengineering the existing systems, taking a departmental approach, pleasurable the departmental needs and funding sufficiently will help to implement the two strategic in itiatives.ReferencesMckeen, J. D., & Smith, H. (2012). Delivering Value with IT (2nd ed). New jersey Pearson Education, Inc.Ferris, B. (2012, June 12). How to Measure the Business Value of a Project. Retrieved February 17, 2015, from http//cobaltpm.com/measuring-business-value-of-a-project/